Chances Book 2
by Miryl
Summary: Find Book 1 here: /s/10351149/1/Chances-Book-1 The journey of Aang and his friends continues. As in book one I try to stick to the timeline of the original as far as possible and suitable to the situation. Rated T just in case. PS: Thanks to Nayeli13 for helping with my spelling and so on!
1. Intro (Same as book 1)

Just think... what if from a specific point in life some little detail would change. Instead of the left road you'd take the right. What would happen? Who would you be today?

(PS: As you may or may not have yet noticed, I'm trying to stick to the original story-arc as far as it suits the circumstances. Therefor you will find direct quotes from the original series. I do not Point them out in the text, to Keep reading fluid. I am not owning the characters, nor the world, nor do I Claim to. I write this only for my and my reader's amusement. Direct quotes of the series are only used for keeping as Close to the original story-line and character-developement as possible. Therefor: Have fun reading and enjoy!)


	2. Chapter 1

They had been given a boat to travel on. Or better, they had been taken onto Paku's boat, since he was leaving anyways and was heading in the right direction. So Appa could have some rest. They also could travel by night this way. But Aang woke up every night from nightmares, and so did Zuko. Both for different reasons, though. Aang had nightmares of the Avatar-state, and Zuko had nightmares of people dying. As it was finally time for their departure, Zuko was kind of glad about it. Maybe flying would bring him to other thoughts.

Katara was handed a vial with water from the spirit-oasis from Paku, who told her that the water had special properties and that she shouldn't waste it. Aang was getting a box with waterbending-scrolls, but was warned that he would still need a Master to train him. To Zuko Master Paku handed new broad-swords, for his had kind of suffered from the war a bit. Master Paku smiled at him, telling him that they had found the swords with one defeated soldier, and since he had watched the young Firebender fight, he had guessed they would be more use to him than any of the watertribe. Sokka only got a pat on the shoulder, which upset him visibly.

Paku told them to fly straight to the earthkingdom-base east of their present location. The General there was informed of their arrival and had promised to provide them with an escort to Omashu, where Aang would start training with King Bumi. It didn't took long to get to the earthkingdom-base luckily. Zuko really now longed for a real steady ground beneath his feet. He had been feeling dizzy for some time now. So he was really glad as they closed in on the base. They were greeted by the whole force of the base, including General Fong. He called them heroes and brave, mighty and fearless. Zuko was kind of already fed up by that guy. Why would all people they ran into, … well, most people they would run into, think they had to courtship them?

The rest though seemed to find it nice to be treated like royalty. There even was a firework in their honour. "Do they WANT to call the Firenation here?" Zuko whispered "They could as well tell all the world where we are…" Sokka though was fascinated by the show. Then they were invited into the General's throneroom, for lack of better word. Because for an office it was far too noble and huge. The General told them how impressed they all were about how Aang single handily wiped out an entire Fire-Navy fleet. Aang stood humble like most times, but the General didn't. He decided that Aang was ready to face the Firelord now.

Despite Aang and Katara putting in that Aang still had to master earth and fire, the General didn't listen and tried to convince Aang that with the power of wiping thousands of ships out in a matter of minutes, he could destroy the Firelord now. So Sokka explained that Aang needed to be in the Avatarstate to do such things, and that he hadn't figured out how to trigger it willingly yet. The General got it all wrong too. "So it's decided then." He stated "I help you figure out how to get in and out of the Avatar-state, and then you will face your destiny." He turned towards Aang.

"I don't think so." Zuko put in, standing up "We haven't agreed on that, so nothing is decided." The others got up too and Katara took his side. "Aang's pursuing his destiny his way." She stated. So the General tried to go on Aang's conscience. "Alright, while you take your times, learning the elements…" he said calmly "the war goes on… May I show you something?" He led them to a window to look down to a courtyard. "Those soldiers are the lucky ones…" he stated, as they looked down at some men in pretty bad shape and a lot of bandages. "They came back. Every day the Firenation takes lives. People are dying, Aang!" he went on "You can end it. Now! Think about it."

"Don't listen to him, Aang…" Zuko whispered, as they were guided to their room. "This is not the way it's supposed to be, right? Roku would have told you, if you would be ready now, wouldn't he?" But Aang was deep into thoughts and didn't answer. As the rest ate and went to sleep, Aang didn't eat and also didn't go to sleep. Zuko wanted to help him, but didn't know how, and since he was tired, he decided that it was better for everyone if he would go to sleep. His sleep was not long, as he was woken by bad dreams again. This time the girl appeared again. The one who would laugh at him, making him feel dumb, angry and scared at the same time. His gasp as he pulled himself out of the nightmare woke Katara. "Where is Aang?" she whispered.

Aang came in a bit later, telling them that he had agreed to the General's offer. Katara was not happy with this, but Sokka was fine with it. So it turned into a sibling-discussion again. Until Katara went angry and rushed away. Zuko sighed. He knew he was supposed to follow her to see if she was right, but he was so damn tired. The next morning the General started his tests on Aang. Zuko went to question the soldiers. He really didn't want to be part of this. The blue, glowy being that Aang had been at the North-Pole had scared him, and it had killed. This hadn't been Aang. Aang wouldn't kill. He wouldn't even eat dead animals. If he was in the Avatar-state, he was no longer himself, and that scared Zuko.

It appeared the soldiers were really nice, and they showed him some fighting-techniques. They also gave him new clothes, so he would fit in better. "Now you can pass as an earthkingdom-citizen any time." One of them laughed, tousling his hair. "The girls will run after you, believing you are a war-hero with that scar…" "I don't think I would want this…" Zuko put in, but was laughed at by the soldiers. "Wait until you get older." They said "You will love it then…" They also urged him to show his skills with his swords, and praised him for his show. "Not bad, kid. You should join the army, you know? We could really need fighters like you." "I don't think that would be a good idea…" Zuko decided.

Zuko spent the night with the soldiers, since they were nice and better company than his friends right now. They stood up late, feeding him with meat and some liquid that made him feel dizzy and warm and safe at the same time. They made him forget about Zhao and the girl from his visions. And for he had not heard any news from the group, he was sure they were still trying to stick to the plan on finding out how to trigger the Avatar-state. And he was really not interested in that.

The next day he awoke by loud cracking and bumping noises and his head hurt badly. He tried to feel his forehead, but found his hands unable to move. As he opened his eyes he saw exactly nothing. "What…" he muttered to himself, wincing at the echo of his own voice. Where was he? What had happened? The bumping and crashing noises would not stop. And his head pounded like it would explode any minute now. He finally lost consciousness as the floor beneath him started moving.

The next time he awoke was because someone was dragging him into far too bright light. "Well, Avatar, if you don't want to help us, he will…" Someone shouted right next to him, causing him to wince because the noise rang in his ears painfully. "Zuko!" Aang cried. "I'm sure the Firelord will start to see reason, when we threaten to kill his son." The voice continued. "Don't count on it…" Zuko murmured. "Let him go!" Katara shouted from somewhere near Aang. He couldn't really see him. The light was far too bright. "No." the voice next to him stated "Only if the Avatar is going to stick to the plan." "Your plan has a mistake in it, though…" Sokka put in "As far as we know, the Firelord does not really care for Zuko… Otherwise he would long have tried to get him back home, wouldn't he?"

The General was not willing to listen to reason. He went on with how he was going to let the Firelord see the execution of his own blood, when Zuko finally decided he had heard enough and using the voice of the General for locating the guy, he simply blew fire at him. Good thing if you knew how to bend without your hands… He felt as the guy let go of him, screaming in horror and pain, and found that he was not able to stand on his own. Before he hit the floor though, he found himself being caught by strong hands and someone freeing his hands and feet. "Sorry, kid…" a familiar voice stated, and as Zuko was finally able to shade his eyes and open them, he saw one of the soldiers kneeling next to him. "He is crazy, you know…" the soldier went on, while Katara put out the fire on the General's clothing and Sokka was bashing his boomerang over the guy's head.

The soldiers offered them to guide them to Omashu, but they declined. Zuko was helped up on Appa by Aang's bending and they took their leave, happily to leave this horrible base behind themselves. Katara made Zuko drink a lot, but he still felt sick and only wanted to sleep. So they let him. Unluckily his nightmares wouldn't and he would wake ever so often because of the beasty grin of the girl.


	3. Chapter 2

It was kind of nice as they had a stopover at a lake. It was kind of a warm day, and some water really couldn't hurt any of them. It had been some time since most of them had had a bath. While Aang and Katara went Waterbending, Sokka was using a giant leaf as a boat and relaxing on it, he complained that they would need to hurry, if they would want to make it to Omashu before nightfall. Zuko ignored him and tried to find something fitting for dinner in the lake. Maybe he could improve his fish-catching-skills. But somehow Aang's and Katara's training got his attention. Moving multiple tentacles of water at once looked kind of impressive. A bit stupid, but mostly impressive. Zuko wondered if one could do that with fire too.

Music made them stop and turn. As a group of wired looking people appeared out of the forest, Sokka suddenly lost balance and fell from his boat, pulling Zuko with himself, as he gripped for hold at the next thing he could reach, unluckily being Zuko's arm. The people seemed kind of dumb to Zuko, since they called the four of them riverpeople and looked kind of surprised as Aang told them that they were just people. The guy introduced his group as Nomads, calling himself Chong, and his wife Lily. As Aang said he was a nomad too, the guy smiled at him and answered: "Hey, me too!"

Zuko picked himself out of the water and waded ashore to dry himself with invisible Firebending. He was not eager to show these guys his powers just yet. Who knew who they were. He had no desire to be drugged and taken captive again anytime soon. As the nomads befriended Aang and Katara and put flowers in Appa's fur, Sokka and Zuko decided to go find some food. They weren't really eager to get dragged into the flower-arranging-business. "Let's hope we can get to Omashu soon…" Sokka murmured "These people are just dumb…" "Like really…" Zuko murmured. Though unluckily the guys were still there as they returned.

Sokka tried to remind them on them having a timetable to keep and they needed to leave for Omashu now, but the others wouldn't really listen. Especially Aang seemed to really like these people. And the nomads lessoned them about concentrating more on the going, as on the where. As Katara finally went to their side, agreeing that they had to find King Bumi in order for Aang to learn earthbending somewhere safe, Chong stated: "Sounds like you're heading to Omashu." This causing Sokka to slap his forehead in desperation. Unluckily it also reminded Chong about an old song about a secret path through the mountains.

"I think we stick with flying…" Sokka stated after the song, which luckily stood short for the guy had forgotten some lines of the text. "Thank Agni…" Zuko murmured to himself, as Aang agreed. "And Appa hates to go underground…" Aang went on. "And we have to stick with what makes Appa most comfortable." It soon though turned out that flying was not really comfortable when there were fireballs launched at you. Obviously someone had tipped the Firenation off about their next goal, for there was a blockade on the mountain, out of catapults that were quite precise in aiming at them. So they kind of had to stick with the cave. "I don't like caves…" Zuko murmured. "Why?" Katara asked. "Did you got locked up in any?" "Apart from the ice-cave you locked me in?" Zuko replied drily "Not that I know of, but who knows…"

As they started their walk towards the tunnel, they got informed that it was actually not one tunnel, but a whole system of tunnels. "All we need it to trust in love." Lily stated "According to the curse." "Curse?" Zuko asked irritated. Sokka actually froze. "Curse?" he cried, but was ignored. "I think we should try to run the blockade again…" Zuko huffed. As they finally found the entrance to the secret tunnel, which actually was a labyrinth, they finally got more information about the curse. "The curse says, that only those who trust in love can make it through the caves, otherwise you'd be trapped in them forever." Chong explained. "And die." Lily added. It turned out that "and die" was the rest of the song, Chong had forgotten about. "Not that I believe in curses…" Zuko stated "But I really think we should try the blockade again…"

"So all we have is to trust in love?" Aang asked "We can make it." "Are you sure?" Sokka asked. So they went inside the cave anyways, as they discovered a column of smoke at the horizon. Firenation was finally closing in, and neither of them was eager to wait for them to reach them. Unluckily Firenation was closer than they had thought. Only a few meters into the café, suddenly a big earthquake occurred, and as they turned, they saw how rocks were starting to close the entrance, leaving them in complete darkness. "Oh Agni…" Zuko huffed.

Luckily the nomads had some torches, and they lit one to make them be able to see again. Sokka decided that they would need a plan. They had five torches, each lasting about two hours, but Sokka had to explain to them that it wouldn't be 10 hours then, if they are lit all together. "Are these guys dumb, or have they been drugged?" Zuko asked Sokka after a while. Sokka simply shrugged his shoulders and got a paper-scroll and a pen to paint down their ways through the tunnel. If it was a mace, he figured they could solve it that way. So Sokka took the lead. Zuko stood close to Appa, somehow feeling more secure this way. He really didn't like caves.

It didn't help as Sokka discovered that they were running in circles, despite his map showing completely different pathways. "This is earthbender-terretory, right?" Zuko therefor asked "Could it be that… you know… the walls are moving, or so?" "That's the only explanation." Sokka nodded. Right in that moment the earth started shaking, causing Zuko to cling to Appa's fur. The nomads put it all on the curse. Katara finally called for quiet and told them to listen. Wired noises echoed back from the tunnel walls, and as Sokka stared into the tunnel before them to figure out what it was, a wolf-bat came their way. As Sokka though tried to shoo it away, a piece of the burning torch he swung around broke, and landed on Appa's foot, causing the Bison to jump up in pain, sending Zuko to fly to the floor harshly and then Appa started running around wildly, bouncing against the walls of the tunnels causing another earth-quake and Zuko to fear to be smashed underneath the going-crazy bison's paws.

Luckily Katara helped him back to his feet right as she did, suddenly the wall broke, raining stones down on them, causing them to flee from the falling boulders. Aang managed to shove the others away from the falling rocks and then hurried to get Katara and Zuko, who were just on the other side of the rockslide. As the rumble stopped, they found themselves cut from the rest of the group. Since Appa happened to be on the other side, and so was Sokka, the three of them didn't have any torches, and so Zuko lit a fire in his palm to light their way. The nomads were on the other side anyways, so he was safe doing so. They followed the only path they could find, until they reached some sort of door, blocking their way. Katara hurried to it excitedly, pulling Zuko as her light-source with her. Aang and her pressed themselves against the disk of stone to open it, but it wouldn't work.

"We are trapped…" Katara finals sighed, giving up. "Well, we could try to use bending…" Zuko suggested. "Right…" Aang nodded, pulling both of his friends back a few steps. "On three." He commanded. "One. Two. Three!" And with three all three of them unleashed what they could manage on the round door, causing an explosion that flung them back several feet. But as they got back to their feet again, the door was opened. "We did it!" Aang rejoiced. They hurried back to the door and slipped inside the room behind it. "This isn't the exit…" Katara noticed. "No…" Aang murmured "It's a tomb…"

As they climbed down towards the two coffin-sort-of-things in the middle of the room, Aang stated that it must be the two lovers of the legend. As they came closer though, they could find signs on the graves. "Come here…" Katara ordered Zuko "I need light to read this…" Katara read to them the story that was carved into the coffin-thingies. It told the stories about two lovers who learned earthbending from animals called badger-moles, and thus became the first earthbenders. It also claimed Omashu to be the city built as a monument for their love. And as they turned, they could see a carving in the wall behind them, showing the two lovers kissing, and a scroll between them, saying: "Love is brightest in the dark." Katara read out loud.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Zuko asked after a while. "Should we all think about whom we love, or who loved us, or should we simply think about love, or trust that somehow we will find our way out of here? For I really prefer not to die here…" "Whom do you love?" Aang asked back. "I… I don't know… My family, I guess…" Zuko shrugged "But on the other hand…" "I love all of you!" Aang stated "You are my best friends." "Is that the kind of love that is meant?" Katara asked sceptically. "What would you suggest? Like that we kiss or so?" Zuko asked her. "Uh, why not?" Katara asked "If it saves our lives…"

"Well… I would kiss Katara, if I'd have too…" Aang said. "If you'd have to?" Katara snapped at him. "No! No, that's not what I meant!" Aang hastily put in. "Oh, for Agni's sake…" Zuko muttered, letting his fire go, to pull Katara close to get this discussion over with. But right as he had let his flame disappear, suddenly another light appeared. Thousands of blue shining crystals appeared at the ceiling of the cave. So Zuko stopped in mid-movement and stared up to the light, as did the other two. "That must be how the two lovers found each other!" Katara cried "They put out the light and followed the crystals to their meeting-point."

They followed the crystals carefully to not overlook something or trip over some rock in their way. They came out on the other side of the mountain soon later. "What about Sokka?" Aang asked. Right as he had finished his question, suddenly the earth rumbled again and out of the stone broke giant animals, huge as Appa, carrying Sokka and the nomads on their back, followed by Appa and Momo. Katara hugged Sokka, as soon as he was down from the giant monsters. "Are those badgermoles?" Zuko asked. "I guess so…" Aang nodded. As Katara let go of her brother she noticed a red spot at his forehead and asked him about it. Right then Chong leaned over to them, saying: "No one react to what I'm about to tell you… I think that kid might be the Avatar." Pointing at Aang. Sokka slapped his forehead, causing the red spot to get a little bigger.

Luckily the nomads decided not to go to Omashu with them. But Chong gave Sokka his flower-necklace and hugging him he told him, he hoped that he had learned to not let the plans get in the way of the journey. Sokka hissed "Just play your songs…" at him. "Hey, good plan!" Chong stated and danced away to his playing on his instrument. "Please, do let the plans get in the way…" Zuko muttered "We don't really need any crazy General wanting to mess with our plans ever again…" Sokka grinned and nodded.

They went on by foot, to not again be detected by some wired Firenation-blockade or something. But as Sokka went ahead, telling them "And now let me present to you what the journey is really about: Destination. The Earthkingdom-city of…" He though didn't finish his sentence, but froze and stared. As the others reached his position they froze as well. What they saw was all but what they had expected. Omashu was taken. Smoke was rising from the city at several places, making it rather look like an active volcano than a city. And instead of the banner of the earthkingdom there was the banner of the firenation placed right above the entrance…


	4. Chapter 3

Aang wanted to look for Bumi nevertheless. Since Bumi was his friend he had to find out what happened to him. But the others weren't as enthusiastic. Sokka wasn't even sure if Bumi was still alive. It was impossible to enter through the main-entrance now anyways. But Aang knew a secret passage, they reached by crossing the canyon around Omashu on Appa, flying low to prevent detection. The passage turned out to be the sewage-system of the city, and Sokka obviously hadn't yet learned to stay clear of doors or other things opened by Aang. He was splashed completely by the stinking, slimy water. "I don't enter this, if Aang does not bend an Airbubble around me." Zuko decided, after he had taken a short look at Sokka.

So they went on, Aang ahead, protecting Zuko with an Airbubble, followed by Katara, who was kind of supposed to waterbend the sewage-water away from herself and her brother, but seemed to have forgotten about her brother at all, for as they arrived at the end of the canal and finally crawled onto the streets of the city, Sokka looked like a swamp-monster. Aang actually cried out in horror, as he saw him. Katara quickly waterbended away all the slimy water and Aang blow-dried the watertribe-boy, but Sokka was left with two wired looking animals that were stuck to his skin.

They went off easily once Aang tickled their heads. The creatures were called Pentapocks and they left little red circles on Sokka's skin. As soon as they were ready to walk on, some soldiers encountered them, asking them harshly what they were doing outside after curfew. Katara hastily assured the soldiers that they were already on their way home, but suddenly one of the soldiers noticed the red circles on Sokka's neck and stopped them again, asking what was wrong with the boy. "He has Pentapocks." Katara explained quick-witted "Very contagious." Sokka hastily played along, playing very sick, muttering something like "I'm dying…"

"And deadly…" Katara added. "Very deadly." Zuko nodded "I'd hurry home and wash my hands if I were you…" "Pentapocks?" one of them asked "Hasn't your cousin died of that?" he turned to the other soldier. And they hurried away from the little group. "Some people are just really dumb, aren't they?" Zuko muttered. "Well, good for us…" Katara shrugged as they went on. "They will hide Bumi somewhere where he can't earthbend…" Aang muttered "Something made of metal." "To be honest, I don't think we will find him…" Zuko sighed "They wil keep him out of sight, to demoralize his people, won't they?" "What do you suggest then?" Aang snapped at him. "Well, find his people…" Zuko shrugged "Maybe they know where he is… We can't really ask Firenation-soldiers, but maybe some earthkingdom-citizens will help us…"

"And how do we find them? Knocking on random doors?" Sokka put in. "I don't know…" Zuko answered "Do you have any better ideas?" "We can't wait until morning…" Aang huffed "They will notice we aren't citizens then…" It was evening, so they were kind of save, but deserted. "Let's split up and look for Bumi or some citizens." Katara finally decided "But try not to be detected by Firenation-Soldiers…" "Alright." Aang nodded, and so they went their own ways. Zuko tried to stay in the shadows. He felt saver there. He also tried to peek through windows to find someone who would help them find Bumi, but he found nobody, until he entered another street, and suddenly heard voices drawing closer. Voices of girls. One of the voices made him shiver…

"I really don't think the Avatar is so easily trapped in a cave…" the voice that made Zuko shiver stated "And I don't believe in curses. Despite maybe my dear brother being one, but well." "I don't mind them coming here…" another, very monotone-sounding voice stated "At least then something happens here for once." Zuko hid deeper in the shadows. His heart raced but he dared not to move nor run. "It will be fun to see Zuko again, won't it, Mae?" another voice, very bubbly and childish sounding said. They knew him? Was that a good or a bad sign? "If the rumours are true…" the first voice put in, and three girls suddenly came into sight. The first one he recognized from his visions. She was the one that made him feel angry and dumb. The other two he didn't recognize.

One was dressed in red and black and looked pretty… monotone. There was absolutely no expression on her face, not the slightest indication on what she thought or how she felt, the other one was dressed in pink, mostly, and she was pretty and smiled. Her long hair was braided and she hopped more than she walked. This one seemed overall happy. And then there was the girl of his visions, the girl that made him shiver. She had a golden circle on top of her head, holding her hair in a topknot. Her expressions expressed disgust and pride. She wore slightly modified armour of firenation-soldiers. Black, red and gold, instead of only black and red. "We don't know yet if Admiral Zhao really saw my dear brother, or if he saw someone else, just imagining it was Zuko…"

"Are we sure they will come here?" the happy girl asked "I mean… I wouldn't run into a fortress of my enemy…" "They are looking for the Earth-King…" the monotone-sounding girl answered "We got the information from our spies." "Then we need to make sure they find him…" the girl who had claimed Zuko to be her brother smiled evilly "And we better prepare a trap too." Zuko held his breath as they passed him. "We will make sure that they won't escape this time…" Ok, now how to get this information to the others? – Zuko wondered. They just agreed to split up, not how and when to meet again. "This better be good…" the monotone girl stated, before they vanished into the next street. Zuko was not sure if he should follow them to find Bumi and risk detection, or try to find the others and warn them. He decided for the second option.

He ran into Katara after a while. "They are awaiting us." He told her hastily "They are setting up a trap!" "Who is?" Katara asked back. "I don't know… Firenation…" Zuko shrugged "I overheard them. We need to warn Aang…" "Alright, follow me." Katara said and started running. Zuko followed her. They spotted Aang soon later on the roof of one of the houses. Katara waved for him to come down and he did. "Zuko heard someone talking about setting up a trap for us." Katara said. "They want to use Bumi as bait…" Zuko added "What shall we do?" "Not run into it?" Sokka's voice suggested from behind them, as the water-tribe boy closed in. "We can't leave Bumi with them…" Aang complained. "We can't simply run into their trap either…" Katara sighed "We would need a diversion…" "I don't think a diversion would help…" Zuko sighed "Not this time…"

Suddenly the floor beneath them gave way and they fell. All four of them landed somewhere underground, like an underground city. "We can help." A man said "We are trying to reconquer our city since it was taken…" He went on with how King Bumi decided to give the city up to the invasion and do absolutely nothing. So the city was taken without a fight. Worse, King Bumi got captured without lifting a finger for his own defence. They hadn't seen him since. But they weren't willing to give up without a fight. Aang tried to convince them to leave the city and retreat to live to fight another day. Since they wouldn't win the fight now, and even if they would have to pay a high price. And most of the people agreed with him, but wondered how to get out. "Pentapocks…" Sokka suggested. So they went to gather some of the little squids. "This could be our chance for a diversion…" Zuko told Aang "If we manage to create a mass-panic we might be able to at least talk to Bumi without getting grilled…"

Sokka was telling the people what to do and how to act, once they had all been marked by the squids. "But we can't leave quietly…" Zuko put in "We need a panic… Like, people screaming and being hysteric, telling the plague is spreading and taking their loved ones, stuff like that. Be melodramatic. Pretend like you knew the end is near…" Aang nodded. "Good idea… The Firenation will start to panic too, and will try to get rid of the infected…" They waited until they figured out where the trap was set. They had hung Bumi at the highest spot of the city, in a metal-coffin-kind of thing. Then they gave the sign for the panic, while the group made their way up towards Bumi.

The plan almost worked perfectly. The screaming of people was soon spread all over the city, and their infected people showed great talent in playing sick. Soon enough the Firenationsoldiers were busy to make sure the infected and the screaming were finding their way out of the city. And then Zuko saw two of the girls from before rushing to meet the chaos underneath. So as they arrived at the top there was only one girl left to guard Bumi, and this girl was the gloomy one. "Hi." She stated. "Let Bumi go!" Aang shouted at her. "Azula knew you would come." The girl continued "Though she got distracted by your little game down there." Katara opened her waterskin and started bending water out of it, but the girl was quick, throwing some hidden knife at Katara. Zuko blocked it with one of his swords just in time. "Nice." The girl commented. "I can return the compliment." Zuko growled "Now, please let us pass." "Have I changed so much?" the girl asked "I mean… you definitely have, but…" "What are you talking about?" Katara snapped at her.

"She's trying to buy time!" Sokka yelled and went into attack. But the girl was calm, quick and she seemed to know her ground. She stepped aside as soon as Sokka had reached her, and the boy shot over the edge of their level and went falling. "I'm Azula's friend." The girl explained, looking after Sokka for a while "I was at the palace now and then, when we were kids." "Good for you." Katara hissed. "Diversion…" Zuko whispered at her "So Aang can get to Bumi." Aang and Katara nodded, and so Katara and Zuko charged at the girl, to get her busy, while Aang was aiming for Bumi. This in fact worked. The girl was not good enough to take on three opponents at once and had to concentrate on the ones attacking her. Aang managed to reach Bumi and with Airbending he broke the coffin free from the metal chain it was hanging on, sending it on a speed-slide down the delivery-system.

"Sorry, but I think we have to go." Zuko put in, as soon as Aang was gone, and he pulled Katara after him, away from the girl, towards where Sokka had vanished. Sokka was one story down, trying to climb the wall. Katara caught his sleeve and the three started running, while the girl was sending her knifes after them. As they ran they could see Aang and Bumi rushing down the slides, while someone was following them, a girl bending blue fire, while they soon found the happy girl and the gloomy one on their heels. Meanwhile the chaos down on the ground-floor was nearly perfect. "How do we get out of here again?" Zuko asked after a while of running. "Uhm…" Sokka mumbled, looking at the mess at the entrance "Where is Appa when one needs him?" "We need to get rid of our pursuit first!" Katara cried. So Zuko flung around, sending a Fireball towards the girls behind them.

It sure rid them of the two girls after them, but it brought the third one off of Aang's and onto theirs. "Didn't made it any better!" Sokka complained at once, as they suddenly were the targets of blue fireballs. Zuko had all his hands full on blocking the attacks, so he stopped running. They didn't knew where to anyways. "So it is true that the Avatar had managed to get a Firebender on his side…" the girl sneered "Interesting…" Zuko tried to ignore her talking and concentrated on dodging her attacks. "So you won't talk to me?" she went on "Too bad. I've heard you ran into Admiral Zhao. He wrote us about you, claiming you to be my brother… Zuko…" Still Zuko didn't reply. "So, are you?" she went on, after a while "He also claimed you have lost your memory." "Then how could I know if I am?" Zuko finally gave back. "Father wants you to return home, Zuzu." The girl went on "We miss you at home." "Why would you attack me then?" Zuko gave back "If you'd wanted me home?"

It was then that they both noticed that they were alone. The watertribe-siblings had vanished, and so had Aang. The girl finally held her fire. "I'm Azula, your sister." She said "You went on a task to find our Archenemy, the Avatar, three years ago. And as I see, you did find him. But somehow he got you on his side, mingling with your mind so to use you against your own family. I understand he must be very powerful. But we can help you. Just come home with me…" "Aang didn't mingle with my mind." Zuko corrected "I lost my memory before he appeared. It was due to an accident, not due to him. And I saw what this war does to people. Aang is trying to stop it and bring peace back. I want to help him. Because I think it is the right thing to do. I don't remember you, nor anyone else of my family, and if it's true what I have heard about my father, I prefer not knowing him."

"So what? You help the Avatar kill your own father?" Azula asked. "Aang wouldn't kill…" Zuko put in. "Then what? Ask him to step back?" Azula laughed "Father will never surrender. He is the Firelord, not such little earthking-whimp. If you want this war to end, it's either for the world to accept our supremacy, or for father to be killed." "We will find a way." Zuko promised "Without killing." "Zuko!" he heard Katara's voice from above, and there was Appa not far away from them. So Zuko turned and jumped onto Appa's saddle, feeling Aang's help with Airbending a bit, so he did in fact reach it, and they took off, leaving Omashu and Azula behind.

"Where is Bumi?" Zuko asked. "He didn't want to come." Aang explained "He decided his place is in his city and he will wait, until the time is right to take it back. He also told me to find an Earthbending-Master who would wait and listen before he strikes… Do you think we can ask the badgermoles?" "I don't think he meant that…" Zuko said. "Who was that girl?" Katara asked. "Her name is Azula, she claims to be my sister…" Zuko sighed "I remembered her face, but…" "What did she tell you?" Katara went on. "She wants me to come home, but I'm not sure if she truly means that or not… And she mentioned something else…" Zuko answered "To win the war we will have to end the firelord… She said he wouldn't step back, so we'd have to kill him…"


	5. Chapter 4

Since no one wanted to discuss the problem further they flew on silent for a while. It was some hours later that they noticed Appa was losing height. As Sokka asked for the purpose, Aang told him that the swamp they were just flying over was somehow calling for him, wanting him to land. Sokka was not so happy about that, but Aang pointed out that Bumi had told him to wait and listen in order to learn earthbending, and now he was actually hearing the earth, so he couldn't really ignore it. As Katara and Sokka went on about not liking the place, and Momo was hiding in the bundle of their stuff, Aang decided to give in and not land, but as soon as he had decided so a storm appeared, a whirlwind of some sort, reaching them quickly, pulling them into its turning. Aang created an Airbubble around them to protect them from the strong winds pulling them away or some objects hitting them. But unluckily it didn't last long, sending them down quickly and not really carefully.

Luckily they landed close to each other in the soft swampwater. Still Zuko found his wrist hurting quite badly. Appa and Momo though were nowhere to be seen. Aang climbed a tree to look for them, but without success, while Katara noticed an elbow-leech on her brother, who freaked out once again, complaining about things attaching to him. "They just sense that you like them." Zuko teased him, getting shoved back onto the water for that. Aang returned, telling them that the tornado had disappeared too, as if it had never happened, causing them all to feeling a little worried.

Sokka decided to slash plants with his knife to "speed things up". Zuko took the knife away from him. "Are you crazy or just dumb? This swamp had just unleashed a tornado on us and called for Aang, and you are actually hurting it now? Do you really think that's a good idea?" "These are just plants!" Sokka complained, reconquering his knife. "Maybe you should listen…" Katara put in "Something about this place feels… alive…" "Well, plants are alive…" Zuko muttered, but was ignored. "I'm sure there are a lot of things that are alive here…" Sokka agreed "But if we don't want to get eaten by them, we have to find Appa as fast as we can."

They finally came out of the vines and into thick fog. Aang and Katara were calling for Appa and Momo, without any success. Sokka finally decided they had to make camp, since night had fallen, and the fog prevented them from seeing anything. To make matters worse, now that night was falling, life was waking. Mosquitos, wired screaming birds, swamp-gas-explosions, … so Sokka decided they needed a fire, starting to slash some branches for that again. Aang put in that they longer they were here, the more he was sure they shouldn't be slashing things, but Sokka explained he had asked the swamp and it had said it was ok. "I can make a fire without any wood…" Zuko suggested. "You'd have to be awake for that, don't you?" Sokka put in. "I guess…" Zuko shrugged. "You see…" Sokka said and continued slashing branches.

Soon later they had their little fire burning. Katara and Aang were still uneasy, and Zuko didn't felt that comfortable himself. As Katara mentioned she felt watched, Sokka claimed that they were all alone up there on their big branch they had chosen for camp, slashing at a mosquito with his knife, as the thing suddenly lit up like a living star and showed them a lot of eyes staring at them from all directions. "Except from them…" Aang muttered, while the four of them moved closer together. "Right…" Sokka muttered "Except for them…" They didn't dare to fall asleep for quite some time after that, but sat back to back to stare into the dark, but since it was dark, they didn't see a thing.

They awoke again, as suddenly they were pulled away from each other rapidly by vines slung around their bodies. Dense fog swallowed each of them, leaving all of them on their own. Zuko breathed fire on the vines, holding his arms tight to his body, and they let go quickly. But they kept attacking, causing him to use his swords to fend them off, before fleeing deeper into the fog. He was sure he was helplessly lost now. He called for the others, but received no answer. Then suddenly he saw someone. Someone he remembered from his visions. One of the nice faces he remembered. Gray hair and beard, a pretty round face and stomach, clad in the modified armour Azula was wearing.

The guy simply stood there and smiled at him. "Hi. Can you help me?" Zuko asked him "I've lost my friends…" But he received no answer and as he came closer, the guy was suddenly gone. As Zuko turned though, he saw the guy again, further away. So he decided it couldn't hurt to follow him. Maybe this was some kind of spirit leading him to his friends or at least to the exit… Suddenly he heard someone screaming and then Aang, Katara and Sokka fell onto him, causing all of them to roll down the giant root he had just wanted to pass on his way to the figure he was chasing. Sokka screamed at them what they had been doing, for he had been looking all over for them. Katara told him that she had done the same, while Aang got off of Zuko. "I've been chasing a girl…" Aang confessed, helping Katara to her feet.

"What girl?" Katara asked. "I don't know…" Aang explained "I heard laughing and I saw some girl in a fancy dress…" "It does not take much to get you chasing someone then…" Zuko murmured. "Well, there must be a teaparty here and we just didn't get the invitations…" Sokka added... "Tea would be quite nice now…" Zuko put in. Katara shot them a warning look, before confessing: "I thought I saw mum." "Look, we are all just scared and hungry, and our minds are playing tricks on us. That's why we all saw things out there…" Sokka explained. "You saw something too?" Katara asked. "I thought I saw Yue, but that does not proof anything…" Sokka put in. "What should it proof?" Zuko said "Despite that this wood is really, really spooky?" "What did you see then?" Aang wanted to know. "I'm not sure… A guy I was seeing in my visions…" Zuko shrugged "Sure it's wired, but I don't see any reason to this, despite it brought us all together again…"

"They lead us here…" Aang nodded. "So where is here?" Katara asked "The middle of the swamp?" "Yeah…" Aang muttered, turning towards the tree the root belonged to. It was the most enormous tree Zuko had ever seen. "It's the heart of the swamp." Aang went on "It's been calling us here." "It's just a tree." Sokka put in "It can't call anyone. For the last time, there is nothing after us, and there is nothing magical happening here." It was just then (like Zuko had expected, since always something happened when Sokka was sure that nothing would) that a giant vine-creature appeared out of the water next to their root. In panic they ran away from the creature that started to attack them. It got Sokka and pulled him back, causing the others to stand and turn, and Aang to attack the being, freeing Sokka, but getting the attention on himself.

The being shoved Aang away and turned back to Sokka who was easy prey, then it started to rush away with Sokka trapped in its viney arms. Katara waterbended after it and outrun it, slashing some water at it, while Zuko was left alone back where he was. Damn it. Water was not really a good element to run in, if you didn't happen to be a waterbender. Katara did him a favour by washing the thing against the next tree, so Zuko used the roots and branches to hasten into the fight too. As she attacked again, the being though sent her flying away. Then it swallowed Sokka into its tummy by growing vines over him, as Aang came back to attack. Zuko was still not sure if fire was his weapon of choice here, since he feared to set some tree on fire, causing a catastrophe. He decided on his swords then, but since the being grew back whenever it was hit, he didn't cause much damage.

Katara came back and freed Sokka, while Aang tried to Airbend the hell out of the thing. The fight was drawing away from the land again, so Zuko was left with the option to finally use fire, or wait until he was able to use his swords again. As the vine-being sent Aang flying again, though, Katara decided to end it, by slicing it to fine pieces with waterbending, finally revealing a small, fat man inside the vines, bending the vines around him. Sokka called the news out to his sister, but as Katara took the final blow to the being's head, it vined her up into the next tree. Zuko then decided to screw the damn guy and unleashed his fire upon him, right as Aang arrived again, blowing the vines apart, calling: "Why did you call us here, if you're just trying to kill us?" Since the vines were burnt and blown away anyways the little man finally showed himself. "I didn't call you here…" he stated.

As Sokka revealed Aang as the Avatar, the man asked them to follow him. He led them back to the giant tree and up its branches. "Who are you then?" Katara asked on their way. "I protect the swamp from people who want to hurt it, like this one with the big knife." The guy said, growling at Sokka, who just had to point out that there was nothing mystical about the swamp. "The swamp is a mystical place, alright…" the man put in "It's sacred." They then got a lesson about enlightment and that the whole swamp was just one tree, like the entire world was truly just one big living organism. The guy stated that they were all not that different from one another, and that if they listened carefully they would be able to hear every living thing breathe together. As Katara asked about their visions, the man said that in the swamp one would see people they've lost, loved or sometimes even people we are going to meet, and since time was an illusion, as was death, it doesn't play a role for the swamp.

The lesson made Aang realize how he could find Appa and Momo. He touched the root they were on, because since everything was connected, he would be able to feel them through the tree. Being the Avatar came with quite some nifty powers… As he got up some moment later, he decided they had to hurry. They hurried after Aang and soon later encountered some people in boats, pulling Appa behind them in a giant net. Aang airbended at them, causing Momo to escape from a sack, and the people to waterbend at them. As Katara discovered that they were waterbenders, the one guy decided that if she was too, it meant they were kin, causing Katara to not look all too happy. But they stopped the attack and invited the whole group over for dinner.

Sokka was happy about the invitation, but Zuko wasn't so sure since it contained bugs and small fish. Fish was fine, but it was really small and hard to eat without choking on some bones, but the bugs really didn't look all too tasty. Sokka though had no problems with eating giant bugs. And he still insisted that there was nothing mysterious about the swamp, despite everyone else thought different. But Zuko kind of was sure he just said so, because he secretly was scared off things he couldn't explain. They still all were pretty happy as they were finally able to leave the swamp.


	6. Chapter 5

It was soon later they should lose nearly all they had. They were just awaking from a good night's sleep as suddenly out of the bushes came firebenders, attacking them. Just grabbing what was next to them they hopped onto Appa, but as Katara noticed her scrolls were still missing, and Aang discovered his staff back on the ground, they left Appa again to get their things. So Zuko used the time to get at least their waterskin and the money-purse next to it, firebending at the nearest guy to buy them some time. Unluckily for Sokka, he noticed he didn't have his boomerang, as they already had taken off. Sokka of course was pissed that the others could get their stuff but he couldn't get his boomerang. "Guys, we just lost all our food, clothes, sleepingbags, and Agni knows what, and you thought about scrolls, boomerangs and staffs?!" Zuko put in.

They landed in the nearest city to regain supplies, but of course they couldn't make up for everything. Especially not for Sokka's boomerang. "I'm sure we can find you a new weapon soon…" Zuko tried to encourage him, but it didn't help much. As they had paid the guy from the store they had bought their new supplies from, he wished them a nice Avatar day, of course causing Aang to get all excited, especially as he heard there was a festival. So they followed the man into the next bigger city, near a cliff-shore. Aang was very impressed by the giant figures they made of Avatar Kyoshi, Avatar Roku and even of Aang. Sokka was preferring the deep-fried festival-food. But then suddenly their good mood changed as a young man ran onto the place with the giant figures carrying a torch, setting all three statues on fire, while the gathered people chanted "Down-burn the Avatar!"

Katara couldn't watch any longer, bending water on the half-burnt figures to kill the flames, causing the people to complain. So Aang decided to step in, revealing himself. "Now this will keep us for a while, I fear…" Zuko muttered. Truly as the people discovered that he was indeed the Avatar, they got overly angsty, ducked and hid, fearing he would somehow kill them. The major, or whatever he was, of the city suggested them to leave, since the Avatar wasn't welcome here, causing Katara to ask him why not. It turned out that the people accused Avatar Kyoshi to murder their leader Chin the great. Aang wanted to clear his name and agreed to stand trial therefor. Zuko sighed. Unluckily they had not enough money left to pay bail, and the watertribe-money they had left, wasn't taken as a payment. So Aang was put into prison.

Since he refused on running away from the crazy people, he set them on proofing his innocence. "You know we don't really have time for that, right?" Zuko sighed, but was ignored. Sokka wanted to show his Master-detective-skills and took the lead. So they first let themselves be lead to the "crime-scene", despite the case was about 300-years old. The major showed them the footprint of the killer, which was pretty tiny, still imprinted in the stone. "How do you know that?" Zuko asked, but was ignored. They got told that it had happened at sunset 370 years ago on the very day. They had built a statue of their leader after the murder of the same next to a tiny temple, which the major claimed to have harboured Kyoshi, right before she struck Chin the great down.

The first thing Sokka noticed, was that the statue and the temple were made from the same stone, which wouldn't have been possible, if the temple would had been here before the murder of Chin. So already one part of the story was faulty. Zuko noticed too that Chin's statue had pretty small feet, like the imprint on the cliffs edge. As Katara wanted to put some pieces together, Sokka shouted at her that he was going to solve the case, and concludes that Kyoshi never sat foot into the temple. But sure that didn't prove Aang's innocence, so Sokka decided they had to go to Kyoshi-island. There they discovered that Sukki had left to do her part in better the world, and that Kyoshi had had giant feet and that she had been in Kyoshi the questioned day at the questioned time, therefor she had an alibi.

But obviously evidences were not important for this city. The trial was going to be the major telling what had happened, then Aang telling what had happened, and then the Major deciding who is right. "But you aren't 370 years old, are you?" Zuko put in. "Of course not!" the Mayor snapped. "Then how can you possibly know what had happened, if you hadn't been there?" Zuko asked, causing the Major to stare daggers upon him. So the next morning the trial was held. The Major told: "Everyone loved Chin the great because he was sooo great." He stated "But then the Avatar came and killed him! And that's how it happened." With that he left the centre of the free space in front of the little temple. "That's the worst story I've ever heard…" Zuko growled.

But Aang's story turned out to be worse, for he forgot on what he was supposed to say and mixed it all up. So Katara popped in to help, calling one more witness, namely Avatar Kyoshi, meaning Aang dressed in the sacred clothing from the shrine on Kyoshi-island they had kind of borrowed from their without asking permission really. The major got kind of pissed, deciding that this was a mockery of Chin the great, wanting to sentence the Avatar, but then suddenly a storm came up, darkening the land, and turning Aang into real Kyoshi.

Unluckily Kyoshi was even worse than Aang, since she confessed on killing Chin. Though she called him "the conqueror", claiming him to be a tyrant who tried to claim the whole earthkingdom. She told that Chin came to the place Kyoshi lived and demanding their surrender. So Kyoshi warned him that she wouldn't sit passively while he took their homes, but he wouldn't back down, so Kyoshi split her home from the main-land, founding the island that was later named after her. Chin wouldn't give way, and as the land gave way underneath him, he was falling down together with the earth he stood upon. Then she disappeared again, leaving a very confused Aang behind. So Aang was founded guilty by the major.

Aang's punishment was chosen by a wheel of punishment. Zuko found that place really awkward and stupid. It contained a lot of wired punishments, containing burning, being thrown into a hole of spikes, being eaten by a bears, eaten by fish, boiled in oil, torture-machine, being whipped and community service. Aang had to turn the wheel himself and he did so. Unluckily the wheel stopped at boiled in oil, though Zuko was sure the odds that it would have been anything better had been pretty slim from the beginning. Luckily for Aang though right then the firebenders from before returned, claiming the village for the firelord and smashing the statue of Chin the great.

As they wanted to see the leader of the village, the major hid behind the wheel, asking Aang to help him, but Aang pointed out he would gladly, but couldn't since he was supposed to be boiled in oil. So the major quickly turned the wheel onto community-service and tasked Aang to serve the community by getting rid of the attackers. Aang gladly took that punishment. He defeated one but the three others turned to the town to burn down the houses. Zuko and Katara had all their hands full bending out the flames after them, while Sokka and Aang went on a man-hunt. Luckily the guys weren't really the smartest of people, and so Sokka got back his boomerang from one of them. They kind of took out themselves. Only their leader gave them a bit of a challenge, but was taken out quickly in the end. To the honour the city decided to have a new Avatarday in honour of the day the Avatar saved them from the invasion. Though since Aang was not boiled in oil, neither was their festival-food, leaving them with un-boiled dough-figures to eat.


	7. Chapter 6

The next Earth-village they landed in, to restock supplies, Sokka suddenly thought that they were rich, and wanted to buy himself a bag. Zuko really didn't understood what he would need it for, but he let the others discuss the thing on their own. As he went a bit further away to check out their surroundings, a guy walked buy, putting a flyer in his hand and told him to come try Master Yu's Earthbending Academy. "What's that?" Katara asked, ripping the piece of paper out of his hand. "Just some wired advertisement for some earthbending-school…" Zuko muttered. "We could find Aang's earthbending-teacher there!" Katara cried out. "I don't think so… If this guy has to make advertisement for his school, then he is probably not very talented…" Zuko put in, but Katara ignored him.

Aang seemed to be for trying out the school too, and so he went for his first lesson this very afternoon, while the rest went on looking for some affordable place to stay, in case they had to. They had promised to be back in time to pick Aang up from class. As it was finally time to do so, they had found quite some possibilities. As Aang left the training-area so did some other students. Two of them were talking about some earthbending tournament and as they mentioned that there were the best earthbenders in the world present at the tournament, Aang got interested. He ran after them to ask them where the event would take place.

Unluckily the guys seemed to not be willing to tell Aang the place. They told him it was on the island of nonya, nonya business. Sokka was kind of impressed by that word-game, but Katara was not. She decided to take matters into her own hands and followed the two earthbender-boys. It didn't take her long to return, and when she did she told them she knew where "Earth-rumble six" was taking place. "That does not really sound like the guys there are the waiting and listening types…" Zuko put in. "Who knows." Aang shrugged "It's our best shot, isn't it?"

So in the late evening they made their way to the arena. It was gigantic and they found seats quickly, unluckily it turned out it had a reason why they found them that quickly, since a giant rock was smashed into the space right next to them. In the middle of the arena the host of the tournament bended himself up on a stone-column and then down again. "This will be just some smashing rocks and showing off how dumb and strong they are kind of thing, right?" Zuko sighed. Katara agreed, but Sokka seemed to be overly excited about that. The rules were to knock your opponent out of the ring to win.

The first round was between some guy named "The boulder" and some other named "The big fat hippo". Both guys didn't seem the very intelligent, nor very patient type. As the boulder kicked his opponent out of the ring, Katara suggested him to Aang as an earthbending teacher, since he had some good moves, but Aang declined, since the boulder was not listening to the earth, but only to his big muscles. Sokka wasn't even listening to their discussion. He was busy fangirling the boulder, screaming and cheering.

The next rounds were similar to the first. One idiot after the next showed off his moves and got kicked out of the ring by the boulder. Until the currant champion entered the ring. A small girl named "The blind bandit". "Now this might finally get interesting…" Zuko muttered. "She can't really be blind, it's just part of her character, right?" Katara asked. "I think she is…" Aang answered. "I think she is going down!" Sokka yelled. "She is the currant champion for a reason, I guess." Zuko put in "If she is blind, she might have a completely different tactic than the other guys…"

Really did the girl hardly move until her opponent went ahead for his first strike, and she only needed some small movement to turn this move against himself. He was out of the ring the next instant. During the whole match the blind bandit had hardly left her spot. Sokka was devastated as his hero went out of the ring, defeated by a blind girl in mere seconds. But Aang smiled. This was the person he needed to become his earthbending teacher. She was waiting and listening. As the host was offering a bag full of gold coins to anyone who could defeat the blind bandit, Aang decided to use the opportunity to talk to his future earthbending-master.

Unluckily the blind bandit was not really eager to make new friends right now. She teased Aang as being a little girl as well. But Aang irritated her by airbending himself to where he wanted to go. As the girl was still trying to attack Aang, despite her problem to locate him in time, Aang finally hit back with Airbending, sending the girl over the edge of the ring. As the crowd went wild, Aang hastened after the blind bandit, while Sokka took the money and champion belt into his possession. The blind bandit was gone though. She was not interested in talking to Aang. So they had to leave without a new earthbending teacher for Aang.

The next day though they went on the search for her. They started at the academy Aang had been to the day before. There they met the two boys Katara had managed to get the location of Earth-Rumble six from. They seemed a bit spooked by Katara, but recognized Aang as the guy who defeated the blind bandit. Unluckily they also didn't know where to find the blind bandit. They said she was a mystery, showing up to the fights and disappearing right afterwards. Noone would know where she came from nor where she was going. So Aang decided to ask for a girl in a white dress with a pet-flying-boar. They got the information that a flying-boar was the symbol of the Bei-Fong family, the richest people in town. But they didn't have a daughter. Aang decided that was good enough to try it out.

They did found the house with a giant flying-boar symbol on the gates, after some time of searching. Aang recognized the symbol from his visions. But as usual they broke in, instead of taking the direct way of asking nicely to be let in. They climbed over the stone-fence into the garden and went to look for the blind bandit. They soon found out they were at the right place, since suddenly the earth underneath them broke and shoved them up high in the air. Zuko managed to catch his fall by a roll forward, Aang and Katara landed in some bushes, and Sokka made hard contact with the earth. Zuko sometimes wondered what kind of fighting-training this kid had had. None really, as it seemed.

"What are you doing here, Twinkletoes?" a very pissed looking blind bandit asked, suddenly standing next to them. "How did you know it was me?" Aang asked. "Don't answer to Twinkletoes! It's not manly!" Sokka hissed. "How did you find me?" the girl asked. "Well, a crazy king told me I had to find an earthbending-teacher who listens to the earth, and then I had a vision in a magic swamp…" Aang explained. Katara jumped in for the rescue. "What Aang is trying to say is, he is the Avatar." She stated "And if he does not master earthbending soon, he won't be able to defeat the Firelord." "Not my problem." The blind bandit stated "Now get out of here, or I'll call the guards." "Look, we all have to…" Sokka started, but Zuko stopped him.

"You don't seem to be the kind of person who likes sticking around a fancy house, wearing fancy clothes and listening to a lot of rules…" he stated, causing the girl to stop in her walking away. "You seem to me like the type who prefers freedom, adventures and getting to know the world. We can take you out of here. Interested?" "Who are you now?" she suddenly snapped. "Does it really matter?" Zuko asked. "Even if I would want to leave…" the girl went on "I can't. Now leave me alone." "Sure you can." Katara put in "I'm sure your parent will understand." "You don't know them." The girl hissed "They think I'm weak and innocent and helpless." "Show them they're wrong?" Katara suggested. "We can speak with them." Aang decided "Hang on. We will be back soon."

They left by climbing the fence again, and Zuko started to wonder why they had such bad protection of their gardens. Then they headed for the door to ask for an audience with the house-owner. They were invited to dinner, and to stay overnight, since Aang was the Avatar. They got introduced to the blind bandit as Toph, and they had to see how Toph was treated at her home. She hadn't lied by telling them how overprotective her parents really were. As a servant put a bowl of rice in front of her, her father ordered to blow on it, since it was too hot for her. Aang jumped in by airbending on the steaming rice, gaining applause by the house-owners.

Toph's parents started to ask Aang about his opinion on the ongoing war, and Aang explained he was still looking for an earthbending teacher. They suggested Master Yu to Aang, since he had trained Toph since she was little. Aang tried again by explaining that Toph therefor had to be a great earthbender, but her father declined that, explaining that due to her blindness she would never become an earthbending-master. "I'm sure she's better than you think she is." Aang put in. "To be honest, Sir…" Zuko put in "Aang had had a vision, telling him that your daughter is supposed to help him win this war…" "My daughter is small, and blind and helpless!" her father snapped at him immediately "How dare you suggest to send her into a dangerous war?!" "She is not as helpless as you think she is." Zuko tried again "And I'm sure Aang won't let her do anything that would bring her in danger." "Out of my house!" Sir Bei Fong hissed "Now!" "Well done…" Sokka hissed at Zuko.

"Well, at least we tried…" Katara sighed, as they sat in the grass in front of the Bei-Fong-Gates. "I'm sorry. I thought it might work…" Zuko huffed. "It's not your fault…" Aang shrugged "We will have to try again." "We can't simply take her, can we?" Katara put in "She is only twelve years old…" "Even if she would be older, this would be kidnapping never the less…" Zuko sighed "I fear we will have to find someone else." "There is no one else." Aang cried out in desperation "I need her!" "Well, talk to her again. Maybe she has another idea…" Zuko shrugged. Aang nodded and went back to climb the fence once more. "What now?" Sokka asked "We can't camp here forever… And I'm hungry… Couldn't you have waited until after dinner to make her father mad at us?" "I really didn't expect him to snap so fast…" Zuko apologized again "I really didn't."

It was not long after that, that some guard of the house came running to them. "Where is the Avatar?" the guard asked, out of breath. "He... he had gone for a walk?" Sokka suggested. "We need him. Toph had been kidnapped!" the guard told them. "Oh no!" Katara gasped. They followed the guard back into the garden, where they saw two big scraps in the floor close to the wall, and Toph's parents standing there in their nightgowns, holding a paper-scroll. Her mother was sobbing into her husband's shoulder. The scroll was handed to Katara and she read the threat that if they would want to see their daughter again, they had to bring 500 gold-pieces to the arena. It was signed by the boulder and Xin Fu. Sokka went fangirl again, for he found he had the boulder's autograph.

They therefor went together with Master Yu and Toph's father to the arena to reclaim Toph and Aang, since they were sure that Aang was with Toph. As they arrived at the arena they found both Toph and Aang hanging in metal cages some feet over the arena floor. Sokka had brought the bag of money, Aang had won by shoving the blind bandit over the edge of the ring. They handed the money over, but the kidnappers only freed Toph, since they speculated on getting far more from selling the Avatar to the Firelord. As Toph's father, Master Yu and Toph left, more Earthbenders appeared to make Aang's friend leave, so Katara decided to call for Toph's help. "Go. I'll be ok." Aang called down to them.

"Toph! There's too many of them." Katara called out to the blind girl "We need an earthbender. We need you!" "My daughter is blind!" Toph's father hissed back "She is blind and tiny and helpless and fragil. She cannot help you." This was when Toph finally decided to break free. "Yes. I can." She said, freeing her hand from her father's grip, walking towards Aang's friends. She stopped the team of earthbenders who carried Aang in the metal box away, by earthbending a giant rock in front of them, calling them on that she beat them all before and that she would do it again. The Hippo threw Aang away to get into fighting stance. "They are mine." Toph decided and left them to free Aang, while facing the mass of Earthbenders alone. Therefor she created a dustfield around all of the charging enemies and walked in, now on same gameplay, since now they were blind too.

Meanwhile Sokka, Katara and Zuko hurried to Aang, to free him. "Try to not touch here…" Zuko commented, and then firebended at the lock of the metal cage. Katara meanwhile tried to break the opening with bare hands. It didn't take long until the mechanism gave way to the heat and the doors opened, allowing Aang to slip out of his cage. He wanted to join in the fight, but Katara held him back. Toph had already defeated three of her oponents and was now facing the boulder and the hippo, while her father and Master Yu watched anxiously. She managed to knock the two earthbenders out by turning the disc on which they were standing, causing them to get in the way of a third one, just swinging in on a rope, hitting both of them, sending all three to the floor and with another small move also out of the ring.

It left only one in the ring. Xin Fu seemed like he had never left where he had been standing. He was far better than the others, it appeared, since he waited and watched. His attacks were swift and powerful, but Toph simply built a tent for protection and then sent it's pieces at Xin Fu. It didn't took all too long until he too was sent out of the ring by Toph. Despite her Teacher, Master Yu, was amazed by Toph's skills, her father was not. Toph tried to convince him to let her go with the Avatar, since she was really good at earthbending and not weak and helpless at all, but her father declined, deciding he had let her have far too much freedom. He sent Aang and his friends away, and took his daughter with him. "I'm sorry." Aang called after Toph. "Me too." Toph answered.

So they had to leave again without a new teacher for Aang. They packed their stuff and decided not to wait for the next morning. The danger of having the earthrumble-gang on them again for one reason or the other was far too great. So they went packing. But just as they wanted to leave, they heard something behind them, and as they turned they saw Toph running towards them. "Toph! What are you doing here?" Aang called out. "My dad changed his mind. He said I was free to travel the world." Toph said, but Zuko was sure she simply sneaked out. So soon later they helped Toph up on Appa's saddle and started their journey with a new earthbending-teacher for Aang.


	8. Chapter 7

Some days later as they made camp again, they noticed that Appa was shedding, leaving a whole lot of fur wherever they sat down. While Katara was disgusted, her brother and Aang as well as Toph were fooling around. "Let's just hope no one is following us…" Zuko sighed after a while they had a good laugh about Sokka's Appa-wig, Aang's Appa-beard and Toph's Appa-Armpit-hair. "We leave a pretty obvious trace…" "Relax. We had no one behind us for days now…" Sokka smiled "I'm going for some firewood." "I join you, maybe we can find something to refill our supplies…" Zuko decided. Katara went to fetch water, while Aang put up the tint and Toph did nothing at all.

So Katara went over to her to get her to do something, but Toph was not interested at all. She claimed she wouldn't need a fire, she already had food, and her tent was already set up. That she did by bending some stone-plates over herself in tent-shape. She really didn't got that Katara wanted her to participate in setting up camp. Katara let it be for the moment, but went back some time later to apologize. It made matters worse, for Toph really didn't see any reason to apologize back. Instead she went to sleep, while the rest was not able to do so yet.

As they finally were able to go to sleep, their rest was only a short one. Toph woke them very early, for she had felt something big coming towards them. So they hastily packed up and left, just in case. As they were up in the air again, they noticed a giant trail of smoke and dust in the landscape. But unluckily they couldn't say what it was that made this trail. Zuko tried to sleep a bit, while they were flying. Who knew when they would be able to sleep again. As they landed the argument between Toph and Katara going on woke him. As Katara asked Toph if she could help unload, Toph told her she didn't ask her to unload her stuff, and that she was carrying her own weight. "That's not the point! Ever since you've joined us you have been nothing but selfish and unhelpful." Katara hissed.

"What?!" Toph hit back "Look here, Suggarqueen! I gave up everything I had so that I could teach Aang earthbending. So don't you talk to me about being selfish!" "We all did give up everything we had to travel with Aang…" Zuko put in "But probably you are being so spoiled that you never ever had to lift a finger. Guess what! Part of being in this group is helping each other, and not only looking at oneself!" "Thank you." Katara turned to him. "I don't care, Sparky!" Toph hissed at Zuko "I carry my own weight…" "Appa is carrying your weight." Zuko gave back "And now we should try all to get the sleep we can, before we have to leave again. If we all help together we all can get to sleep earlier, and…" "None of my business." Toph decided, bending her stone-tent around herself.

This time they didn't even manage to fall asleep, before they had to leave again. Toph warned them about the thing coming closer again, and they had to fly on. "Seriously, what is this thing?" Katara muttered sleepily, looking down from Appa's saddle. "And how does it keep finding us?" Toph added. "I don't know…" Aang sighed "This time I'm gonna make sure we lose them…" "I don't think this will work…" Zuko yawned "I fear they follow Appa's fur…" "Now it's Appa's fault?!" Aang hissed at him. "I didn't say that!" Zuko sighed "It's just how they can track us…" "We need to find a river then to wash him…" Aang decided. "We better hurry…" Zuko sighed "They are really close…"

Luckily they soon found a lake. But it was morning already as they did so. "We could have gotten sleep this night, if Toph hadn't had such issues…" Katara put in, as they landed and started to unload so they could wash Appa, so he'd lose his fur. "What?!" Toph hissed "You think I have issues?" "I'm just saying, maybe, if you'd helped…" "Enough!" Zuko went in-between "Let's get Appa clean and then find a hidden spot to rest, alright?" He was attacked by both sides at once, luckily managing to blocking off both attacks just in time. "Stop! NOW!" Zuko shouted at them "If you want to settle this now, then do so, but do it quietly! The rest of us have something to do! Duel yourself, have a Fistfight, honestly I don't care, but settle this! We don't have time, nor energy to have fights in our own team!" Both girls were quite for a while. "I'm… I'm sorry…" Katara then murmured. Toph said nothing, but Zuko noticed she was thinking. "Now rest whoever is too tired to stay on their feet much longer." He ordered "The rest helps to clean Appa."

Aang and Katara used waterbending to shower Appa, while Sokka and Zuko were busy scrubbing the bison. Toph sat there and did nothing. She was still thinking. At least she helped later, as they started to load their stuff back on Appa again. Unluckily Appa was getting tired now too. They would have to find shelter quickly. They found some place up in the mountains not far away, where they wouldn't be seen from below. There they finally made camp, hoping that this time they wouldn't be followed. Toph helped this time, so it was soon later that they finally found some sleep.


	9. Chapter 8

They really had gotten rid of their followers for now. And since they had some mountains and rocks around them, Toph had decided to start Aang's teaching. This time Katara joined Zuko in his watching and this time so did Sokka. Toph explained that the key to earthbending was one's stance. It had to be steady and strong. "Rosk is a stubborn element. If you going to move it, you've gotta be like a rock yourself." Toph explained. Though as Aang tried the first move, it actually shot him in another direction. So he tried to find another way, but Toph explained to him that there was none. He had to stop thinking like an airbender. There was no different angle nor any other angle to try it, but he had to face the rock head on.

So Tophs training went on. She was not patient like Katara. She was a strict teacher and she got results from it, although Aang really had to try hard to accomplish anything. Sokka soon got bored and wandered off, but Zuko stood and watched. Katara got nervous as Toph's methods went a bit challenging. The earthbender decided to make Aang stop a rock that she bended down a slide. As Katara put in her concerns though, Toph only blindfolded Aang, so to make him feel the vibrations. This of course was not what Katara had had intended. But being Aang, Aang chickened out anyways in the very last moment. And as Toph challenged him to try it again he gave up.

"Might I try?" Zuko asked Toph, causing both Katara and Toph to look at him as if he just snapped. "Are you an earthbender now?" Toph hissed. "No." Zuko explained "But I still want to see if I could stop the rock. That mad Toph actually grin. "At least you have something of an earthbender in you, Sparky." She decided "Alright then. But don't blame me if you get hurt." "Don't do that, Zuko!" Aang whined, as Toph snatched the blindfold out of Aangs hands. "It's too dangerous." Katara agreed "I'm not sure if I could heal you, if you can't stop the rock." "And you're not an airbender either…" Aang added "You couldn't safe yourself by jumping out of the way.

Still Zuko stood to his word and let Toph blindfold him. He took his stance and waited. It was not as easy as he had imagined feeling the vibrations of the earth and figure out only by that where the rock just was. He though managed in time and firebended the Rock to pieces. "Not bad, Sparky…" Toph decided "See, that's how it's done, Twinkletoes." Katara tried to rescue Aang out of the situation by suggesting a break and some waterbending-practice. "Did you copy my stances?" Toph asked, as the two were gone. "I tried to." Zuko shrugged "Did I do it right?" "Well, almost." Toph smiled "Why are you doing this?" "Doing what?" Zuko asked back. "Trying to copy other benders." Toph explained "I noticed you copy waterbending-stances too…" "I don't know…" Zuko shrugged "I'm just trying to get better in Firebending, and since there is no one to teach me that…" Toph only grinned.

In the evening Toph had decided to try to annoy Aang long enough, until he was pissed enough to face her and earthbending. First she took some nuts from his bag, than she used his staff as nutcracker, but unluckily it didn't really help. It was soon later that Katara started to miss her brother and called them on to look for him. So they split up to look for Sokka. Luckily Aang and Toph found Sokka, who had gotten himself stuck in an earth-crack and attacked by a sabertoothmooselion. And Aang had finally stood up to Toph, who had then managed to make him earthbend. Aang was overly excited about his new found skills and showed them to everyone. Sokka looked like hell and was ignored, so Zuko brought him something to drink and eat. "Thanks…" Sokka murmured.


	10. Chapter 9

On one of their next stops Sokka complained that they had far too less information about the Firenation, after the girls and Aang had decided to each choose a spot for vacation. Sokka was not happy with their plans for vacation at all, for he thought there was no time as it was. But Aang wanted to have some time off. Katara picked the "Misty Palms Oasis". Aang claimed it to be one of nature's wonders, a natural ice-spring in the middle of the desert. Unluckily it turned out that the ice-spring had melted a bit and was now only a small bit of ice steaming in the hot desert-air.

There was a tavern there, but it seemed run down, as did the whole place, and the people really didn't look as if they were to trust. They watched the barkeeper using his doubleswords to create some fruity drink for one customer, and so Sokka wanted to have one too. Unluckily Aang ran into the said customer, spilling his drink all over Aang's clothes. He dried himself up with Airbending, before Zuko could stop him. The guy got excited at once, calling Aang a living relict and introduced himself as Professor Zei. He was overly excited about meeting an airbender and started taking notes about Aang immediately.

Sokka used the encounter to ask for a newer map, since theirs seemed to be a bit outdated. Unluckily the map of the guy was only of the area, and not of the whole world as Sokka had hoped. The professor told them he was looking for Wan Shi Tong's Library, but had not managed to find it yet. This library was built by the knowledge-spirit himself, according to the legends, by collecting wisdom from all over the world for mankind to read in order to better themselves. As Sokka found out it might contain a map of the firenation or any other useful information about it, he chose his vacation was the library. The professor though put in that it was not so easy to find, and that the desert was almost impossible to cross, for he had tried several times and nearly died each time he had tried. So Sokka decided to introduce the guy to Appa.

It took really some time to find the library. And for the air wasn't really cooling up there, crossing the dessert over and over again was not really much fun. Sokka even used his shirt to make a hat to protect his head. Toph made fun of them by calling out "There it is." Causing all of them to react. Finally Sokka spotted a tiny tower sticking out of all the sand. As they landed next to it, they figured out that it had to be the very top of the library and that the rest had to be buried down in the sand. They were sure, once a fox-like creature appeared with a scroll in its muzzle, running up the tower with ease and disappearing through a window at its top.

Toph told them that despite the building was nearly completely buried, it still seemed intact and that it was enormous. She read that from touching the tower's walls. Sokka decided they had to climb up and through the window as well, like the knowledge-seeker-fox they had seen before, but Toph decided she would stay outside. So they left Toph with Appa outside, since she was not really into books, and climbed up the tower with the help of a rope tied to Sokka's boomerang used as a grappling hook. They used the same technique to go back down on the other side as well. The tower seemed to be clad with gold, ending in a massive stone-dome. They finally landed on some stone-bridges guarded by columns at the edges that showed a massive owl on top of each column.

They hurried to hide as they heard someone coming closer though. The someone was a gigantic looking owl with black feathers and a white face and two white spots on the back of its head. "I know you are back there." It said, causing the Professor to step out of their hiding. He hurried towards the owl, introducing himself. "You should leave the way you came." The owl said. Aang decided they should come forward as well, and doing so he asked the owl if he was the spirit who created the library. The owl then introduced himself as Wan Shi Tang and told them that humans were no longer welcome in the library, since one Firebender came to look for information to destroy his enemy. And since humans only used wisdom against each other, Wan Shi Tang did not allow them in his studies any longer.

"So, who are you trying to destroy?" he asked, looking at Sokka. "What? No, nono, no destroying." Sokka hastened to say "We're not into that." "Then why have you come here?" the spirit asked. "Uhm… Knowledge for knowledges sake?" Sokka suggested. The spirit called him lies, but Sokka pushed Aang forward, telling the spirit he was with the Avatar. Aang promised that they would not abuse the knowledge of the library, so the spirit decided he would allow them to use his collection under one condition. They had to contribute some knowledge. The professor gave up a book and the spirit agreed with it and took it. Katara offered her Waterbending-scroll she stole from the pirates so many days ago. Aang took out a wanted-scroll of himself and Sokka made a dragonfly-puppet out of a piece of string. All Zuko could think of having was the knife they had found with him. It had an inscription at least, maybe it would count. The spirit took their offers and let them go explore the library.

They went to explore therefor. Sokka continued to simply put things in his bag. Then he found some paper underneath some glass, and he took it out too, hurrying away. The others followed, asking him where he was heading. "I want to know what happened to Firenation on their darkest day." Sokka explained. They found a room with a red banner on top with the symbol for fire printed on it in a black letter. Unluckily the room was completely empty and burnt. Sokka was devastated about this. Luckily a fox-being came along, whining until they decided to follow it. It lead them to a gigantic golden plate, seeming to symbolize the sun. As the fox slipped through a hole in the wall, the inner plate started to move and showed a room behind it. There was the fox again, and a round altar-like thing in the middle of the round room.

The fox pushed a lever and suddenly a layer started to cover the dome-ceiling showing a night-sky as well as the solar system. The Professor called it a planetarium.

Katara suggested to try to enter the digits from the piece of paper Sokka had found on the altar, which turned out to be some sort of calendar-thing. So Sokka started to turn the disks which made the top layer of the altar to the date that the piece of paper was claiming to be the darkest day in Firenation history. Then he pushed the lever again, and the planetarium started moving. It stopped suddenly, leaving the room dark, despite it was having the day-layer out. As they looked up they saw that the moon-symbol was covering the sun-symbol. "Great. It must be broken…" Aang huffed. "It's not broken. The sun is behind the moon." Sokka explained "It's a solar-eclipse. It's literally the darkest day in Firenation history. Something horrible must have happened on this day. I do not know what but I do know why. Firebenders lose their bending during a solar eclipse!"

"That makes sense." Katara said "Think of what the lunar eclipse on the North-pole did to the waterbenders…" Sokka gave a treat to the fox and it headed off. "We have to get this information to the earthking in Ba Sing Se." He then decided. "Shush!" Zuko warned "Remember what we promised. We can make plans once we are out of here…" The others nodded. But first they decided to look when the next solar eclipse was going to be. And they actually found out that one was going to be before Sozin's comet arrived. Sokka noted it down. "Now we better get going and do not push our luck any further." Zuko decided. "Are you insane? I won't leave this building ever again!" the Professor cried out. "Well, then don't. But we better get going." Zuko decided "Come now." Katara, Aang and Sokka nodded and hastened for the door.

They didn't find any maps on their way, but they came just in time to find Toph fighting against some sand-benders trying to steal Appa. "Hey!" Zuko yelled at them, attacking at once. Katara and Aang joined in and so did Sokka. They had the sandbenders running in no time. "Was about time." Toph grumbled. "We hurried…" Zuko sighed "Now off to Ba Sing Se." They all climbed onto Appa and started their way towards the earthkingdom of Ba Sing Se. Thanks to a map Sokka had liberated from the library they could use the stars to guide them towards Ba Sing Se.


	11. Chapter 10

As they flew over the landscape towards Ba Sing Se not only didn't they notice a lot of firenation-ships on the one side of a pass dividing the sea into two halves, they also noticed something close to the walls of the city: A giant metal drill. "Firenation…" Sokka muttered. They landed on the wall just above where the drill was to be seen. Soon they were informed that Civilians weren't allowed on the wall, but Aang told the guards who he was and demanded to see who was in charge.

"It's an honour to welcome you to the outer wall, young Avatar." Aang was greeted soon later "But your help is not needed. I have the situation under control. I assure you, the Firenation cannot penetrate this wall." The general showed them to their defence-prepare. "Many have tried, but no one had succeeded." "What about the dragon of the west?" Toph asked "He came in." "Well, yes, but he was quickly expunged. " the general was quick to answer.

He went on that he had sent an elite Earthbending team – the Terra-team –to stop the drill before it reached the wall. The name of that team made Sokka think they'd need a team-name themselves. But as they watched from the walls they saw two dark figures attacking the Terra-Team back, taking them down, one by one. So the general decided to take Aang on, on his offer for help. So they started to make plans on how to stop the drill. While they did the best thinking they could, Katara tended to the defeated Terra-Team. "Two girls ambushed us." One of the soldiers told them. "One of them hit me with a bunch of quick jabs, suddenly I couldn't earthbend and I could barely move. Then she cartwheeled away." "That's one of the girls from Omashu..." Katara muttered. "Ty Lee…" Zuko nodded, suddenly having a flashback of a cartwheeling overly happy girl. He simply suddenly knew her name.

"The pink glad one?" Aang asked. "She does not look dangerous, but she seems to know the human body…" Katara sighed "She blocked their Chi. It's like she takes them down from the inside…" "That's it!" Sokka cheered "That's how we defeat the drill!" "By hitting it's pressure-points!" Toph added. "I hope we don't run into my sister by doing so…" Zuko sighed. He really was not eager for a rematch.

They headed down to the ground with the help of Toph's earthbending and then Toph bended some earth up for their cover. The dust made them invisible but made it hard for them to see as well. They ran into the cloud of dust, closer to the drill, until they were close enough. Then Toph bended a hole in the ground in which they jumped. She bended it close over their heads again, leaving them completely blind. But luckily Toph lead them on securely and brought them back out again, right underneath the drill. As the rest climbed into the machine, Toph decided to stay on safe ground, since she couldn't bend inside the drill. She planned on trying to slow it down from the outside. So they went on without her.

Sokka destroyed some pipe in order to get some plan of the machine. He figured engineers would have one. He was sure they would come to fix the broken pipe. So their group hid. Really soon later came a guy with a lot of paper-scrolls in a bag. Katara simply froze the guy solid and Sokka took the scroll he held in his hand. It really was a plan of the structure of the drill. Zuko didn't understand much of it, but Sokka seemed to do. He decided that they had to separate the inner from the outer structure in order for the thing to collapse, so they hurried after him.

Soon later they were between two hulls that were combined by metal braces. Sokka's plan was to slice the braces, though they were more than a man's high thick. He instructed them to slice the metal with waterbending. Zuko was supposed to try to melt some of the things down. And Sokka was the Plan-guy, as he called himself. "Together we are Team Avatar!" he decided. It really was not easy slicing or melting such giant metal-braces. Once one brace was slit… exactly nothing happened. But then suddenly some rumbling started and Sokka was convinced they took it down. "I think they started drilling…" Zuko sighed, whipping sweat drops off his forehead "I don't hear any cracking…" "Congratulations, crew. The drill has made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se…." A metallic sounding voice came out of some speakers above them. "Start the countdown to victory!"

Sokka tried to move the slit brace further, but of course it wouldn't move. "Maybe we don't need to cut all the way through…" Aang put in "Toph was teaching me that you shouldn't put one hundred percent of your energy into only one strike." Then he demonstrated his plan on Sokka. So they started to only cut three quarters of the way through the braces, or melt through them. As soon as they were nearly done, suddenly a bolt of fire missed Aang only by inches, and when they looked up they could see Azula and her two friends standing somewhere above them. They started running immediately. "Guys, get out of here! I know what I need to do!" Aang called out to them. Katara handed him her waterskin and they made their way to the exit, while Aang headed in the other direction.

They came to a lid that stated to be a slurry pipeline. "What does that mean?" Katara asked, but Sokka had it opened already, and since they were followed they couldn't be picky about the way they were going to get out. It turned out to be rocks and water. Pretty deep rocks and water. It pulled them with it as soon as they made contact. They were poured out at the back of the drill covered in a layer of mud. And after them came Ty Lee. But Katara bended her back in together with the muddy water. "Keep that up!" Sokka yelled "It's building up pressure inside, and when Aang delivers the final blow it will be ready to burst!"

Suddenly Toph appeared, and she helped Katara shoving the muddy water deeper into the drill. And then suddenly the drill started to explode on several places, sending fountains of mud into the air. Toph rose a pillar of rock underneath them, so they wouldn't get washed away by the streaming out mud. And then the drill fell apart and stopped. "We won!" Toph cheered. "Better get away from here, before Ty lee gets backup…" Zuko decided. So Toph sat them back down on the ground and they hurried back towards the wall where they picked up a very muddy looking Aang. But in fact apart from Toph none of them looked much better…


	12. Chapter 11

They travelled on towards the inner wall. The city was enormous. Far greater than any city they had ever seen before. As they landed somewhere where it seemed ok to do so, they were greeted by a oddly grinning Lady. "Hello. My name is Joo Dee." She greeted them. "I have been given the great honour of showing the Avatar around Ba Sing Se. And you must be Sokka, Katara, Zuko and Toph." She went on, facing each of them by mentioning their name "Welcome to our wonderful city. Shall we get started?" "Yes." Sokka stated "We have information about the Firenation-Armee that we need to deliver to the Earthking immediately." "Great. Let's begin our tour." Joo Dee smiled "And then I'll show you to your new home here. I think you like it."

Sokka huffed and hurried after Joo Dee. "Maybe you've missed what I've said." He stated "We need to talk to the King about the war. It's important." "You are in Ba Sing Se now. Everyone is safe here." Joo Dee explained. They were put in a wagon while Appa was following behind. Joo Dee gave them information about the city as they passed. They also were informed that Ba Sing Se had many walls. The ones outside were for protection and the ones inside were to maintain order. The newest arrivals, the craftsmen and artists lived in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. It seemed pretty run down and poor, as well as dangerous. The middle ring looked a lot better. It was the financial district with a lot of restaurants and the university. They stopped at the town-hall of the middle ring. As Joo Dee left the wagon, Sokka complained about her only hearing every other word he said. "It's called being handled." Toph sighed "Get used to it."

They went on soon enough. The upper ring was even more pretty than the middle one. It was home to the "most important" citizens. Also their house would be there. They also passed the walls of the royal palace that was guarded by the Dai Li agents, who were the cultural authority of Ba Sing Se, guardians of all traditions of the city. Whatever that meant. "Can we see the king now?" Aang asked. "Oh no." Joo Dee laughed "One does not just pop in on the earthking." They finally halted at a house which Joo Dee called their home. Also she received a note, telling them that their request for an audience with the earthking is being processed and should be put through in about six to eight weeks. Of course none of them was happy about that. It even made them less happy that Joo Dee wasn't going to leave them out of her sight.

It was late evening Joo Dee finally left them. Until now they had found out that people reacted wired, as soon as they had mentioned the war in any way. It made them suspicious. So Sokka went to speak with one of their neighbors to find out what was wrong. Though the guy only told them that they weren't allowed to mention the war and that they should stay clean of the Dai Li. They got food some time later, and that was kind of nice, but they all felt kind of trapped. Zuko nearly prayed to Agni that night that Joo Dee was going to let them alone the next few days.

The next morning Katara came into the house with great news. She had found information about the King's party for his pet-bear. That it only said bear irritated most of them a bit. She planned on sneaking in with the crowd. Though Toph was sure it wouldn't work, since they had no manners. Katara hit back that Toph's behaviour was far worse than her own, but Toph told her that she had learned proper fancy behaviour but chose to leave it. Katara on the other hand never learned it. "You learned it, you could teach us." Sokka suggested. "Yeah, I'm learning every element, how hard can manners be?" Aang decided, snatching the curtain from its place, using it as a cape. "Good evening, Mister Sokka, Watertribe, Miss Katara Watertribe, Lord Momo of the Momodynasty, your Momones." He said, trying to sound noble.

Sokka copied him at once. "Avatar Aang, how you do go on?" Sokka asked. Aang bowed to him, and so did Sokka, and then they did it at the same time, banging their heads. "Katara might pull it off, but you two would be lucky to pass as busboys." Toph commented. "But I feel so fancy." Sokka stated. "You do not look fancy." Zuko commented drily "You are far too over the edge. And you pull faces all the time. Despite I haven't once seen you eat politely. Not even at the Northern watertribe-banquet…" "And you can be fancy?" Sokka hissed. "He should." Katara sighed "He is a Prince…" "Point taken…" Sokka huffed. So the day was spent with going through their new wardrobes, getting their hair in order, putting up make up and teaching the not nobles at least some sort of courtesy. "I feel sooo fancy now." Aang decided, after Zuko had unsuccessfully tried to teach him how to walk.

In the evening they were ready, and Zuko left with the two girls for the party. They planned on letting the others in through the side-gate. Although their plan had seemed so perfect, they didn't manage to get through the gate, since they had no invitation. Even Toph's passport wouldn't help. "Our parents are waiting inside." Also didn't help much. "Know what… we will just get ourselves some invitation…" Zuko decided, as they were sent out of the line. He snuck into the shadows and waited, until a couple came by. The female had the paper-scroll loosely stuck in her purse and Zuko managed to liberate it with a quick move. So they got back into line again. Soon later they were inside.

"Good. Now we need to find a way to let in the others…" Zuko muttered. They found the others already inside, dressed as servants. "Good plan…" Zuko complimented them. "Another crème-puff, please." Toph commented. Unluckily Joo Dee found them as well. She tried to convince them to leave, but by doing so, she unluckily pushed Sokka, who pushed into aang, who carried a can with liquids, sending its contents onto a lady standing close, soaking her. Aang immediately bended her dry, but ruining her dress, her makeup and her hair in the process. Luckily she was only overly excited of meeting the Avatar. As his name was said, suddenly everyone became quiet and stared and suddenly the smile disappeared out of Joo Dee's face.

Sokka made up a new plan of Aang distracting the crowd, while the rest was supposed to look for the king. So as Aang started to make bending-tricks, the others silently snuck away. Then suddenly a seat was carried in, covered by a thin veil only showing the outlines of a figure. It was set down in the middle of the hind-wall. "Aang, the earthking!" Sokka hissed to his still bending friend. But as Aang hurried towards the seat, the soldiers picked it back up and carried it away, while others went to collect the members of Team Avatar. "Let go off me!" Zuko hissed at the guys who snatched him from out of the crowd. But they wouldn't listen. Together with Sokka, Toph and Katara he was pushed out of the hall and into another room. They were re-joined there by Aang.

They also met the Grand secretary Long Feng, who was head of the Dai Li. Sokka complained about not being let to the earthking, for they had important that could defeat the Firenation. But Long Feng explained that the Earthking had no time for such things military problems, his only concerns was the cultural heritage of the city. Long Feng was concerned with all the other parts. "So the king is just a figure-head." Katara summarized. But Long Feng also didn't want to hear anything about their plan. The strict policy of the city forbade mentioning the war within the walls, so Ba Sing Se would stay a peaceful utopia. "Let's go…" Zuko sighed. "Come on, this isn't worth it…" Joo Dee was sent to bring them back home and they were warned to not cause any more trouble. Though who was coming in didn't look like Joo Dee. As Katara asked where Joo Dee was, the new female told them that she was Joo Dee and she would be their host for the time they would stay in Ba Sing Se.


	13. Chapter 12

They planned to stay in Ba Sing Se a bit longer and try something else to reach the king. They managed to keep the new Joo Dee at bay and were often able to freely wander the city and make plans as they wished. So far they saw no new possibility to inform the king about their discovery. They had to wait and listen, like real earthbenders should. Therefore they decided to live life in Ba Sing Se, to discover another method to come to the earthking, or at least to get their official permit for an audience. Although they hoped they wouldn't have to wait that long.

The thing Zuko liked about the city was that they normally weren't stared at. There seemed to be a lot of strange looking people, so they had some fitting disguises for now. What he really didn't like was all the pretending there. All the happy faces with their fake smiles and fake stories and denial of the war going on in front of their doors. They all seemed like puppets, and honestly Zuko was kind of scared by them, people in the upper ring were especially horrible. So when he was free to wander around he normally headed down to the middle and lower ring. Sure, those were the more dangerous areas, but at least people were more sincere there.

One day as he was escaping the upper ring again he noticed a bunch of soldiers at the blacksmith. He stood hidden and watched them for some time. They would know about the war, right? They were soldiers. They had to have fought inthe war, right? As one of them turned his head and suddenly looked in his direction Zuko froze. Not because he feared the guy might have seen him, but because of the stranger's eyes: They were golden like his own. Was this even possible?

"Excuse me," He stated, walking towards the guy.

"Hello there," The goldeye smiled down at him, "How can we be of service?"

"Have you been in the war?" Zuko asked boldly. They were soldiers, they should know about the war, right?

"Shush, boy," The goldeye whispered, pulling him away from the other soldiers, "You don't want the Dai Lee to hear you talking about the war in here. There is no war in Ba Sing Se."

"But outside there is…" Zuko insisted.

"Listen. Do not mention the war," The goldeye sighed.

"You are a goldeye too…" Zuko then stated. If he could not talk about the war, then he could at least try to find out if the other was a firebender.

The soldier winced a bit. "That's a genetic disorder," He explained then.

"No, it's not," Zuko claimed.

"How would you know?" the goldeye growled, now not seeming so friendly anymore.

"Because," Zuko said, producing a small flame in his palm.

The stranger quickly grabbed his hand and closed his fingers over the flame. "Are you completely insane?!" he hissed.

"You are firenation too, aren't you?" Zuko asked, despite the guy nearly crushing his fingers.

"I'm an earthkingdom citizen," The goldeye insisted "You shouldn't have told me you are Firenation. I have to report this now."

"I've been in a coma for some time, you know…" Zuko went on. This guy was not earthkingdom. No matter what he wanted to believe. "As I awoke I couldn't even remember my name, but my friends helped me and I start to remember some things…" Zuko went on.

"Why do you tell me all this?" the goldeye hissed.

"Because something like that might have happened to you, but you weren't surrounded by friends then…" Zuko suggested.

The goldeye stood quiet for some time then. "Who are you?" he then asked.

"My name is Zuko," Zuko answered "And yours?"

"I'm Sang," The goldeye replied "I was in a coma… They told me I had been wounded in the war against the Firenation, but I never could recall any of my memories before my awaking."

"You don't look like you've been injured by the Firenation…" Zuko answered, looking him up and down "I've seen that…"

"But you were, weren't you?" Sang sighed.

"I can't remember," Zuko shrugged "It doesn't matter now. Just because one's Firenation does not mean they have to be on the wrong side of war, right?"

"You are pretty smart for a child," Sang smiled "How did you found out your name, in the end?"

"Someone told me…" Zuko answered "Someone who knew me before. I didn't felt it at first, but as my friends used the name it started to feel right…"

Sang brought him home soon later, but came back the next morning when Zuko was outside meditating. Sang sat next to him and watched for a few moments. "I thought about what you told me, yesterday," He then started the conversation. "Does the name Azula, or Zula mean something to you?"

"As far as I know that's the name of my sister," Zuko answered "Why?"

"I had some memory of a little boy called Zuko, like you, and a little girl called Azula, nicknamed Zula…" Sang explained.

"You remembered me?" Zuko asked confused.

"I'm not sure…" Sang sighed "Does the name Lu say something to you?"

"Uhm… no, I don't think so…" Zuko answered "Why?"

"I heard it in my memories…" Sang said "I'm not sure what it really means though…"

Zuko didn't answer but returned to morning-meditation.

"How did you find out about your bending?" Sang asked after a while.

"Uh… I… I just kind of did…" Zuko shrugged "I noticed my breathing influenced the flames of a fire and I could manipulate my body-temperature and stuff like that, and then suddenly I made fire…"

"I noticed I could breathe with the flames yesterday evening…" Sang explained "Could I be…"

"That sounds like Firebending to me," Zuko smiled "But I'm no expert, you know…"

"Let's go, talk somewhere less exposed…" Sang decided after he watched a man passing by.

"Is that a Dai Li agent?" Zuko asked, as he got up to follow Sang.

"Might as well be. I'm not sure…" Sang decided and led him away from the house "A colleague told me about a new teashop that opened in the upper ring. He claimed it to be amazing."


	14. ad 12: Iroh

Despite he had fulfilled himself a dream he had had since he had to leave Ba Sing Se defeated, life wasn't what he had hoped it to be. His new Tea-shop the Jasmin-Dragon was running smoothly, and he really liked all his employees, especially a young female waitress who reminded him of his nephew from time to time. But also because of this, Iroh never was really happy. He missed Zuko. As they had heard the crashing of metal during music-night so many months ago, at first they hadn't thought about something horrible really. Maybe minor damage to the ship or so. Still the whole crew had raced to the front of the ship to see what had happened.

What had happened indeed was far worse than they had ever imagined. A giant ice-berg had rammed itself deeply into the ship's hull. They had known they had to abandon ship at once. It had already started to sink. Iroh had insisted to ignore the blood-covered ice-blocks that had been lying all over the front deck. He hadn't been able to allow his mind to realise the obvious truth. He had gone to call and search for his nephew and had had to be pulled into the steamer by the rest of the crew. It had taken them days to convince Iroh that searching would be senseless. They had lost Zuko to the depth of the ocean. It had taken even longer for them to find land again. It had been a devastating time without food and only little water, but somehow they finally made it to land.

Iroh, who had finally accepted his fate, told them that they should go to find themselves new lives. All they couldn't have done was going back to the Firenation. So the party had split up. Iroh was sure they all had a good new life as refugees now somewhere in the earth-kingdom. He himself had made his way to the capital-city of Ba Sing Se. Of course he couldn't have entered with his real name, so he went with the name "Sing" here. He thought it kind of funny that they all bought it. It still didn't cheer him up much. He still thought about Zuko every day. He had hoped that one day he would have been able to convince his nephew to settle down somewhere safe and forget about the whole mess back home. Hide as long as possible and lead a nearly normal life in an earth-kingdom-city. He never got the chance to even speak with Zuko about that.


	15. ad 12: Reunion

One morning when Iroh was working in his already busy Tea-shop, something happened that should change his life completely. Something, that when he first noticed it, scared the crap out of him. And it sure was not easy to scare the crap out of the Dragon of the West. For despite Iroh might look harmless, fat and old, he was still dangerous. More dangerous than his brother might imagine. More dangerous than any of his customers or even his employees would ever think him to be. But in the end it only took two people to turn Iroh's face completely white. And these two people entered his tea-shop this very morning without him noticing, for he was busy in the back, brewing tea.

Also it was only by sheer coincidence that he even noticed the two people who would turn his life upside down. It started with him noticing two of his female employees whispering about two handsome young customers. And for he was nosy as always, he decided to take a peek for himself. So he took the pot he just finished brewing and made his way into the front-part of the shop where the customers were. At this time most of the people took tea to go, and only a few tables were taken. Only one of them contained two young males, so he figured it was them his employees had been talking about. But as he took a closer look on the two males, he nearly dropped his tea-pot. His face turned white as snow and he hurried back into the kitchen.

"Hey, Sing, what's the matter?" one of the girls who had whispered about the customers asked him "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"I… I think I have seen two…" Iroh muttered, still shaking. "Do… do you mind… can you ask the two male customers in the right corner about their names, please?"

"I wanted to ask one of them for a date anyways." She smiled, taking the teapot from him "Do they remind you of someone? Don't say they remind you of the two sons you lost, before you came here…"

He had told them about his loved ones. Not really the truth, but he had told them that he had had two sons and that he had lost both of them. Although Zuko hadn't been his son, he had kind of thought of him as his, since he had lost Lu Ten to the war. And then he had lost Zuko as well. He never had told his employees their names, though, nor how he had lost them. They would have guessed it was to the war anyways.

"I am not sure… somehow they do…" Iroh answered "But maybe it's just my old eyes playing tricks on me…"

"I will get their names. Promised." She smiled, hugging Iroh tightly.

He always had pointed out that he wanted the tea-shop to be a nice atmosphere and that they could come to him, if they had sorrows or other problems. So his employees had kind of grown close to him and to each other, kind of like a family of its own. The girl made her way into the serving-area and Iroh stared after her, not knowing if he should hope for her to come back with the right names, or if he'd rather have it to turn out to be a trick of his eyes. But honestly, what were the odds of his two lost ones walking into his tea-shop together? What were the odds Zuko had made it to Ba Sing Se on his own from the South Pole? If he was honest to himself, it was completely impossible.

The girl came back with reddened cheeks and a huge smile. "Sing, you won't believe it!" she chuckled "The taller one is named Sang! It's hilarious, for he looks a lot like you! Together you would be like Sing and Sang." She chuckled more about the coincidence. "The other one has a really strange name, though…" she continued, as she had managed to calm herself again. "He's named Zoku, or… Zuko or something like that… I've never heard a name like that… And he has a huge scar over his left eye…"

"Zu…Zuko? Are you sure?" Iroh stammered "And he has a scar over his left eye?"

"Is he one of your sons?" the girl asked.

"No, I…" Iroh hastened to say "He was a friend of my son." He then decided "I really didn't expect him here…"

"You better go and say hello." The girl said "They ordered Jasmin-tea. You can bring them their order… It would be a great excuse to take a closer look at them."

Iroh smiled a bit and nodded gratefully.

Although he was kind of disappointed that the name of the second male was Sang, and he had never heard of any Sang, he reminded himself that he himself took a code-name, so why couldn't Lu Ten have done the same. On the other hand… he had buried his son's smashed corpse. True, one couldn't really have told if it had been Lu-Ten anymore, but they have found his things with the corpse, so who else could it have been? Zuko's body, on the other hand, had never been found, so… maybe this really was Zuko. Maybe his nephew had somehow survived. Maybe. With shaking knees and pale face, Iroh made his way to the table where the two customers sat. The teapot in his hand was shaking dangerously, but somehow he managed to not spill the tea.

First he didn't dare to look up, as he put down the pot on the table, but then he felt the stare of the younger male and he looked up. "Zuko?" he whispered.

"I… I know you…" the boy whispered back, and Iroh nearly broke into tears as he saw the face and heard the voice.

"Oh, Agni…" he muttered, letting himself sink into a free seat "Oh, Agni, can it be true?"

"Who are you?" Zuko asked, startling Iroh in his overwhelming joy.

Iroh stared at him puzzled for a while, until the other male decided to clear the situation.

"I'm sorry, Zuko had lost his memory due to a coma he was in." Sang explained, still keeping his voice down, as had the others.

And the voice, the voice startled Iroh even more. This was the voice of his beloved Lu Ten. The face matched too, but… could it be? "Lu Ten?" he asked.


End file.
